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Design Notes

Let's get Crackin'!

We've begun testing the class that Vader Darkside wish for and we've reached a point where I am comfortable enough with the existing version to tell do the Skills Breakdown for you.

Before we get into it let me say that it's a REAL pain coming up with a concept, art, testing, tweaking and balancing an entirely new class from scratch in a week. Makes it about 10 times worse when we're ALSO trying to get a special event like Friday the 13th out on the same day. Vader Darkside's WISH was just so generous that it made us really want to do right by him. Darkside, I hope you are happy with what we've come up with!

A Few Facts About The Darkside Class.

Addons: When designing the class art, Dage The Evil also designed a really nice Hood and Weapon for the class. These items will be obtainable from Dage's Legion Shop for hard-to-get tokens. The Golden Cheezburger item itself will turn into the class.

Release Date: We will be releasing it this Friday the 13th! Tell your friends (So they will quit asking over Twitter and on the forums)!

Enhancement: Vader Darkside wished for a caster class so this guy does all magical damage. I highly suggest Wizard Enh, but feel free to experiment and let us know what combo you like!

DARKSIDE CLASS SKILL SET

Vader Darkside wished for a class with a lot of AOE (Area Of Effect, or Multi-hit) attacks which was not as strong as Necro but still a good solid farming class. I think that is just what we've built for him.

That means that while this class is GREAT for taking on lots of monsters at once, it's not great at bosses. It has some skills that will be useful in PvP but I wouldn't recommend this as a PvP class.

AUTO ATTACK

2 second cooldown

A basic attack taught to all adventurers.

You've all seen this before. But it's interesting to note that both you AND your pet auto attack at the same time. This doesn't give any damage increase as the average AA damage is spread out between both of you.

BLOOD BOIL

25 mana, 15 second cooldown

Summons your Battle pet or focuses your anger through your pet to DOUBLE their damage for a short time.

You know what this is if you've ever played Necro or Horc Evader. If you don't have a pet equipped (Battle Pet or even a normal pet) then it will summon the Hate Wolf to your side. If you already have the Hate Wolf or some other Battle Pet summoned, then it's a REALLY nice buff. I suggest using this after you have a few stacks of Deep Rage built up. We'll get into that in a second.

DARK POWER

15 mana, 6 second cooldown

You strike out at your foes with arcing energy, doing light damage and applying Deep Rage to all foes hit. Damage increases with stacks of Deep Rage which stacks up to 5 times.

We couldn't built a caster class for a guy named VADER DARKSIDE without adding lightening shooting from your hands! This is your go-to skill. The cooldown is rather long for a skill that applies a stacking aura but since you can hit multiple foes you can get 3 or even 4 stacks at once. Then activate Blood Boil and BOOM, big hits and bigger crits on everything in sight.

BLINDING PAIN

25 mana, 10 second cooldown

Light damage to all enemies, 25% chance to stun all enemies in range for 4 seconds and reduces enemy damage. Damage reduction increases with stacks of Deep Rage.

This is your damage mitigation spell. Use it when things are getting hairy to reduce incoming damage, do a little of your own damage on the side and possibly stun one, several or ALL of the enemies you are facing. It's not too costly and it only has a 10 second cooldown which means you should use it often if you want to be successful.

BLOOD RUSH & TERRIFYING MIGHT

Rank 4 passive

Increase Haste by 10%

Incerase Damage by 10%

Pretty basic Rank 4 passives here. Do more damage and do it faster than before. The haste buff comes in handy for the next skill.

RENEWAL SPELL

30 second cooldown

Requires at least one stack of Deep Rage. Restores some Health and Mana but reduces Haste severely for a short time. Health, Mana and Haste Reduction increase based on stacks of Deep Rage.

This spell pretty much ensures that you never need to stop farming. Ever. Notice that it has NO mana cost. Just click it and you get Health and Mana back but you HAVE to know when to use it. If you let your life or mana get too low before you use it, the Haste Reduction will get you killed by whatever mob of monsters you have attacking you from all sides. Use it right and you are an unstopable farming machine!

LASH OUT

Rank 10 passive

You can no longer contain your rage. It explodes from you in a magical wave. All enemies in range take high damage. Consumes all stacks of Deep Rage.

Here's the cherry on top. Small % to proc this spell which devestates anyone or anything in your area.

There you have it. The first new AQW class of 2012, courtesy of fellow player Vader Darkside!

We will continue testing the class for the next two days so some of the cooldown or mana costs might change in the final version, but this a pretty solid class right now so I don't expect big changes, if any are required at all.

Friday The 13th!

Only two days (not counting today) until our next Friday the 13th special event featuring rock god and all around cool guy, Voltaire!

This story will be based on a few of the songs from his newest album. The event will become a PERMENANT ADDITION to the game but like all special events, will feature an Event Rare Shop featuring some very special items (including the latest version of Voltaire's Hat) so now might be a good time to spend some of those AdventureCoins that you got for the holidays.

This will also be a chance for our new players to unlock the Friday the 13th Character Page Badge but will also unlock a brand NEW Badge for completing the storyline!

Robots, Explosions and... Unicorns?!

FIRE in the hole*! Flaming unicorns, exploding volcanos, fire elementals, fire spirits... this is going to be one HOT Friday the 13th! Forget sunscreen -when a GIANT MECHANICAL ROBOT** attacks a town on the other side of Mount Etherstorm***, you're going to want an asbestos suit to protect you from the heat!

And it just wouldn't be Friday the 13th without one of AQWorlds' favorite musical guests and his sidekick, Voltaire and Deady! Voltaire's idea on how to deal with this mechanized menace - not to mention his flaming top-hat - are really going to get you fired up this weekend! And did I mention the UNICORN****? I did? Good.

Trot it like it's hot.

We'll be introducing a host of new NPCs, including King (so royal he does not permit his subjects to use his name) and Lieutenant (who wishes to mock King Aldebaran so much he goes only by his rank).

Pictured: NPC too cool for names.

They'll be integral parts in understanding just what made this missile-shooting mecha miss go mad! If you can't stop her, not only the town below Mount Etherstorm will be threatened! With some epicly steam(punk)y rewards in the AC Event Rares shop and as drops, including the Flaming Voltaire Top-hat and the Baby Flaming Black Unicorn pet, this is one event you won't want to miss!

And be sure to turn the music UP, UP, UP because 3 of Voltaire's most incredible songs - including "Riding a Black Unicorn Down the Side of an Erupting Volcano While Drinking from a Chalice Filled with the Laughter of Small Children" - will rock you through this release!

* Also, the whole zone!** Yes, mechanical robot. Stressing the "mechanical" nature. Today's robots are full of computer chips and almost-magical techno-wizardry.This one is not.*** While this event will take part on the other side of Mount Etherstorm, it will not be a part of the Etherstorm/Desoloth storyline.**** NOT talking about the fluffy pink variety, either. No sir.

Progress On Darkside Class

You may have read this already in Cysero's Design Notes yesterday, but Vader Darkside won round 2 of I CAN HAS MOD and wished for a non-member farming class.

We're calling it the Darkside class! Cysero promised you guys that he would post pics as soon as he had some and here they are.

As Vader Darkside wished, this class will focus on attacking many enemies at once to help people who like to grind and farm for rep or special farming rewards in the Dage and Nulgath areas.

Here is a closer look at the armor.

Dage also made a really nice helm for the armor but Cysero's Golden Cheezburger is only one item so it can only turn into one item, and that is the class. Dage is considering adding the hood to his own Legion Shop later.

Vader Darkside also wished that the class be a PET class. All pet classes have the ability to summon their own custom Battle Pet or Members can equip other battle Pets that they can buy around the game. The Darkside class will be able to summon the Hate Wolf.

This Arcane canine is not only the Darkside's constant companion, it is also the focus for his or her magic, allowing their rage and malice to flow through their pet to achieve maximum magical devestation.

A few appear to be confused on some of the finer points of the class so we'll clear them up now.

Vader Darkside wished for Cysero's Golden Cheezburger to turn into a pet based class that anyone can use. When he said "anyone can use" he meant a non-member class. He did not mean that anyone would be able to obtain the class. That's why he specifically wished that the Cheezburger turn into the class.

A lot of people are saying that they "lost" the Golden Cheezburger item. We've checked many of the accounts claiming this and found that none of them ever had it in our records. Some of you might have deleted it accidentally, some of you may have forgotten that you deleted it, and some of you are trying to acquire the class unethically. We're sorry if this actually did happen to you (anything is possible) but no Golden Cheezburgers will be given out.

The class will also not be sold for ACs. This was all part of the contest wish and the item itself even tells you to hang onto it. If you missed out this time, hopefully you won't next time.

As Cysero mentioned, we will TRY to get the class out by Friday. This timeframe is not a promise but we DO promise to try our best to get it out BY FRIDAY.

Once the class has been tested and balanced so that no further changes need to be made we will post a skills breakdown here on the Design Notes like we would with any other class.

Congrats again to Vader Darkside, and well done on this very selfless wish! The ICHM (I CAN HAS MOD) contest will begin sometime after the Darkside Class has been released and the next Golden Cheezburger will once again be availible from Cleric Joy's shop in Battleon.

Remember that Members and non-members can wish this contest but you can increase your chances by being a member or completing whatever AExtras are availible and offered in your region of the world.